


and they were tombmates

by SeeTheVision



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Bets & Wagers, Friends to Lovers, Ghosts, M/M, Mentions of Death, Supernatural Elements, The Author Regrets Everything, idiots to lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:34:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26940730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeeTheVision/pseuds/SeeTheVision
Summary: “Did you hear that?”“Donghyuck, I swear to god if you say another word, this cemetery will have one more dead body.”(Renjun and Donghyuck are dared to spend the night in a graveyard. It goes about as well as you might expect.)
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Lee Donghyuck | Haechan
Comments: 73
Kudos: 279
Collections: Challenge #2 — tricks; treats; and terrors





	and they were tombmates

“Did you hear that?”

“Donghyuck, I swear to god if you say another word, this cemetery will have one more dead body.”

Infuriatingly, Donghyuck just smirks, obviously not taking the threat seriously. Renjun scowls and turns back to the fascinating task of staring out over the headstones, hoping he won’t see anything. The full moon(of _course_ it has to be a full moon because the universe hates Renjun) has risen past the trees, casting its ghostly light over the graveyard, making everything look like an old black and white film. Hopefully not a horror film, but the setting isn’t promising.

“I can’t believe you agreed to this,” cackles Donghyuck, earning himself an elbow in the ribs.

“My pride was on the line,” Renjun reminds him. “If I die I’m haunting Yangyang for eternity.”

“Except ghosts aren’t real.”

“They are!” Renjun glances around nervously, half expecting a vengeful specter to appear and punish Donghyuck for his insolence.

“Go to sleep, Renjun,” says Donghyuck, stretching out in his sleeping bag with complete disregard for the fact that he’s laying on top of a _literal grave,_ just six feet above a corpse. 

Renjun shudders, the chilly October air slipping under his sweatshirt like clammy hands. “And wake up with a ghost possessing me? No thanks.”

“That sounds kind of fun, actually,” Donghyuck giggles. “Hey, ghosts, if you’re listening! Please come possess my body! And finish my history essay while you’re at it!”

“Oh my god, I hate you. It’s official, I hate you!”

Donghyuck starts to laugh, but cuts off abruptly, eyes widening as they catch on something over Renjun’s shoulder. “What the hell is that?”

“Like I’m falling for that,” scoffs Renjun, resisting the urge to turn his head. No matter how spooked he is, he refuses to give Donghyuck the satisfaction of toying with him.

“No, seriously, I thought I saw— nevermind, must have been my imagination.” 

“Murder is sounding pretty good right now,” Renjun muses.

“You wouldn’t,” says Donghyuck, recovering his impish smirk. “Then you’d really be alone in a graveyard with no one but the dead for company.”

“I’m pretty sure a ghost would be a better friend than you are.”

“Well, you’ll never have to test that theory because ghosts aren’t real.”

Renjun squints at him. “You don’t sound so sure about that.” The hoot of an owl makes them both jump.

“Whatever,” Donghyuck mumbles, tugging the sleeping bag up to his chin. “I’m just here for the ten bucks.”

  
  
  
  


Okay, so maybe that wasn’t entirely true. Donghyuck doesn’t think the ten dollars Yangyang bet them was enough incentive for either of them to agree to spend a chilly October night in a graveyard. Renjun, of course, is here as a matter of pride. “Ten bucks says you’d be too scared,” was all Yangyang had to say to make Renjun agree.

Donghyuck, on the other hand, is only here because of Renjun. It’s kind of pathetic if he thinks too hard about it. Here he is, freezing his ass off on the hard ground while Renjun threatens to kill him, and Donghyuck’s actually enjoying himself. Maybe he’s got a bit of a masochistic streak. 

In his defense, this isn’t quite what Donghyuck expected. He was hoping for something similar to the situation he finds himself in whenever Renjun insists on watching a horror movie or ghost hunting show: Renjun, pressed against his side and clinging to his hand whenever something spooky happens on screen, while Donghyuck pokes fun at him and tries to pretend Renjun’s proximity doesn’t make his heart beat faster than any jump scare.

Tonight, though, there’s a chill in his blood entirely unrelated to the cold air.

 _It was a bird or something,_ he tells himself, trying to explain away the flash of white he’d seen across the cemetery. He doesn’t believe in ghosts. He _doesn’t._ But even so…

“C’mere,” he sits up and makes grabby hands at Renjun. “I’m cold.”

Renjun scoffs but scoots over to curl against Donghyuck’s side. Maybe he’s cold, or maybe he also wants the confirmation that there’s something else warm and alive amid the headstones and dry, dead leaves.

“There have been a lot of ghost sightings around here,” Renjun murmurs, as though he’s afraid that speaking too loud will wake the dead. “I did some research.”

“Why would you do that to yourself?”

Renjun shrugs, his slender shoulder moving against Donghyuck’s ribs. “It’s interesting. Have you heard that there’s the body of a witch in this cemetery?”

“Bullshit,” Donghyuck snorts, “there were never any witches around here.”

“Since when are you an expert on local history? Anyways, people walking past the graveyard at night see a woman in white sometimes.”

Donghyuck suppresses a shiver, drowning it in cynicism. “What kind of people walk past a graveyard in the middle of the night?”

“Bold words for someone voluntarily spending the night here,” Renjun points out.

“Touche. So, this witch or ghost or whatever,” despite himself, he glances around, “what exactly does she do?”

“Not sure,” admits Renjun. “I don’t think people usually stick around to let her _do_ anything.”

“Well, maybe tonight we’ll be the first to find out.”

“Donghyuck, I will dig up one of these graves and bury you.” 

Donghyuck grins; god, why does every threat from Renjun fill his stomach with butterflies?

“You’re enjoying this too much,” Renjun grumbles, poking at the sides of Donghyuck’s mouth in a vain attempt to erase his smile.

“You bet I am.” He lays back on the grass, dragging Renjun along with him. With their legs still tucked into their respective sleeping bags, Donghyuck can only feel the warmth of Renjun’s torso against him, hands linked tentatively. He has a sudden, morbid vision of their bodies still laying here a hundred years from now, slowly crumbling to dust with their delicate finger bones intermingled. _I’ve really been spending too much time with Renjun,_ he thinks as he shoves the image away.

  
  
  
  


Renjun’s almost managed to fall asleep, his cheek pillowed on Donghyuck’s bony shoulder, when a flash of movement catches his eye.

 _Don't look, Renjun,_ he tells himself, _you won't like what you see._

Of course, he looks.

“Donghyuck,” he manages to rasp past the shock freezing his vocal cords, not taking his eyes from the sight before him. “Donghyuck, wake up.” Donghyuck grumbles unintelligibly and tries to tug Renjun close like a teddy bear, but Renjun jabs him hard in the ribs. “ _Wake up!”_

“What do you want?”

Renjun just continues to stare until he hears the sharp intake of breath which means Donghyuck, too, has caught sight of the flashlight hovering a few feet off the ground.

They stare in stunned silence for a few seconds before the flashlight drops, thudding against the ground and making Renjun nearly jump out of his skin.

“ _Fuck!”_ yelps Donghyuck, instinctively clutching at Renjun’s arm. Despite the utter terror flooding his system with adrenaline, Renjun can’t help laughing.

“Ghosts don’t exist, huh?” When he hears the quiver in his own voice, Renjun realizes he’s shaking like an autumn leaf desperately clinging to a branch, but he can feel Donghyuck trembling too, so he tries to pull himself together. “Oh my god,” he says, excitement starting to mix with his fear now that the initial shock is wearing off. “Oh my _god_ Donghyuck, we just witnessed an actual supernatural event!” He crawls out of his sleeping bag and tentatively reaches for the flashlight.

“It might not have been supernatural,” Donghyuck argues half-heartedly. “It could have been, like… really strong wind?”

Renjun doesn’t bother to grace that suggestion with a response.

The flashlight is ice cold to the touch, colder than it should be. It nearly burns Renjun’s fingers when he picks it up. “Feel this.”

Donghyuck lets out an embarrassing screech when the cold plastic touches his skin. “What the _hell_ is going on?”

“A haunting. A haunting is going on.”

  
  
  
  


Donghyuck takes back every skeptical word he’s ever said about ghosts. Hell, he’ll believe in aliens, bigfoot, and the Loch Ness Monster too if it gets him out of this situation.

 _Please,_ he begs silently, _I’ll never make fun of the paranormal again, but please don’t let me die in a graveyard of all places._

“Why can’t we just leave?” he asks, voice edging dangerously close to a whine.

“It’s only 3 a.m.,” replies Renjun matter-of-factly as he ties his shoes. “The bet doesn’t end till Yangyang picks us up at 7.”

“We made that bet _before_ our stuff started floating! Things have changed!”

“Are you coming or not?” says Renjun, standing up and brushing a few stray leaves off his clothes. And of course, Donghyuck stands too, because he’d probably follow Renjun into the depths of Hell itself.

“What are we even looking for?” Donghyuck hisses, lowering his voice to match the silent graves and softly rustling leaves.

“Anything strange,” Renjun answers, sweeping the flashlight in an arc in front of them. “Cold spots, anything moving on its own, apparitions…”

“Great! I love this plan!”

Renjun turns and smirks at him, the glow of the flashlight and the moon casting his face into harsh shadows. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”

“That’s supposed to be my line,” Donghyuck complains, but he takes the hand Renjun offers him and clings on for dear life.

He’s not sure whether to be relieved or slightly disappointed that their romantic stroll through the tombstones isn’t interrupted by anything paranormal. He hopes his palm doesn’t feel as clammy to Renjun as it does to him.

"Well, that was eventful," says Donghyuck, recovering some of his bluster as they circle back to their cozy little corner of headstones. "Maybe there's nothing supernatural going on after all."

Renjun rolls his eyes to the heavens as if pleading for patience. "How do you explain the flashlight, then?"

"Maybe it was our imagination?"

" _Our_ imagination? Like, we both just happened to dream up a floating object at the exact same time?"

"Hey, it could happen," he nudges Renjun with his shoulder. "We're practically soulmates, right?"

An odd look is the only answer he receives, the same bemused expression Renjun always gives when Donghyuck tries to flirt with him. Biting back a sigh, Donghyuck finally lets go of Renjun's hand in favor of straightening his sleeping bag. This is _so_ not how the night was supposed to go. It’s kind of baffling, after years of watching Renjun tremble during every horror movie, to see him so calm now. Honestly, Donghyuck would have expected him to be freaking out.

  
  
  


Renjun is freaking out. Of course, he’s always believed in the paranormal, but it’s a different thing to know a tiger exists than to look it in the eye and hear it growl. Belief sharpens into surety, and he’s equal parts terrified and exhilarated. 

He figures it must be much worse for Donghyuck, who’s never believed in anything more supernatural than making a wish at 11:11. Part of him, maybe a large part, feels a sense of satisfaction at how pale Donghyuck looks, his smug smile wiped away. The less vengeful part of Renjun, however, is the reason he isn’t screaming at every tiny noise. For once, Renjun wants to be the strong one, someone Donghyuck can depend on. So, he ignores his fear and focuses on excitement.

“I wish I had some actual equipment,” he laments, “like a spirit box or EMF sensor. Maybe I can buy some and we can come back.”

“Renjun, I may be in love with you but there is nothing you could do to convince me to come back here after tonight,” mumbles Donghyuck, half asleep.

Renjun blinks, wondering if he heard that right. “What? What did you just say?”

Donghyuck rolls over with a yawn, frowning as though trying to remember through the fog of exhaustion. “I said I’m never coming back here.”

“No before that,” Renjun presses. “You said— you said you're in love with me.”

Groaning, Donghyuck rubs his hand over his eyes. “Did I?”

“You did.”

“Can we, like, talk about this later? When it’s not four in the morning in the middle of a graveyard?”

“No,” Renjun insists, poking at Donghyuck’s side, “we’re gonna talk about it now.”

“Oh my god, _fine,”_ Donghyuck sighs, pushing himself to a sitting position and tiredly meeting Renjun’s gaze. “I’m in love with you, have been for like a year. Now, if a ghost could please appear and kill me—” He cuts off with a muffled yelp as Renjun grabs him by the front of his shirt and presses their lips together.

“You idiot,” Renjun pulls away to say, “why didn’t you tell me?”

“I dropped hints all the time!” Donghyuck protests. “But you were too stupid to—”

This has to be the most effective method of shutting Donghyuck up that Renjun has ever tried. He seems to forget he had anything to say, tugging Renjun into his lap with a possessiveness that makes him shiver. His hands flutter from Renjun’s hips to shoulders to jaw before settling on the small of his back to draw him closer. Renjun threads his fingers into Donghyuck’s mess of wavy hair, tilting his head—

A gust of wind blows a leaf into Renjun’s face, making him flinch hard enough that their teeth clack together, and he pulls away. “What the fuck?”

“Fucking hell,” Donghyuck curses as he stares at the mass of swirling leaves surrounding them, “don’t tell me the ghost’s a homophobe.”

“Maybe they just don’t like us making out on their grave,” Renjun suggests, glancing nervously at the crumbling headstone closest to them.

“Oh, right. Um, sorry?” Donghyuck bows his head awkwardly toward the headstone. “We’ll stop defiling your grave.”

Apparently, the ghost is satisfied with this, because the wind stops suddenly, the leaves drifting lazily toward the ground. 

“That was so cool,” breathes Renjun, plucking a leaf out of the air.

“Yeah, cool. Can we go home now?”

“Nope,” says Renjun, checking the time, “we still have two and a half hours to go.”

  
  
  
  


Two and a half hours later, at exactly seven o’clock, Yangyang’s car pulls up to the curb, and Renjun and Donghyuck climb into the backseat.

“I can’t believe you stayed the whole night,” Yangyang grumbles, tossing them each a folded ten-dollar bill. “So how was it?”

Renjun and Donghyuck look at each other, faces pale and eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep.

“You wouldn’t believe us if we told you.”

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

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>  [instagram](https://www.instagram.com/riahsvision/)   
>  [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.qa/see_thevision)


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